Kolkata: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has verbally communicated to a filmmaker to mute four words including ‘cow’ in his documentary on Amartya Sen, the director said.

The four words CBFC’s regional office here wanted to be muted are ‘Gujarat’, ‘cow’, ‘Hindutva view of India’ and ‘Hindu India’, Suman Ghosh, director of the documentary ‘The Argumentative Indian’, told PTI.

“After sitting for three hours at the Censor Board office in Kolkata, during which my documentary was screened and the members scrutinised every single shot, I was verbally told last night to mute four words ‘Gujarat’, ‘cow’, ‘Hindutva view of India’ and ‘Hindu India’ for getting U/A certificate,’ Gosh said. ‘I expressed my inability to them,” he said.

Taking out certain words from the discussion between Sen and the interviewer, economist Kaushik Basu, would remove the soul of the documentary, Ghosh said.

“I am waiting for their written communication and whether they will send the film to review committee in Mumbai. In any situation my response will be the same,” he said.

“These days films get online certification. So I hope the issue gets resolved quickly. But no question of taking out some words,” he added.

Contacted, a member of the CBFC here said, “Nothing to comment to the media on what the director said.”

In the documentary, Sen speaks of social choice theory, development economics, philosophy and the rise of right-wing nationalism across the world including India.

It has been made over a span of 15 years from 2002 and is structured as a conversation between Sen and his student economist Kaushik Basu.

(PTI)

Kolkata: A BJP leader in Bengal has been arrested on charges of “spreading fake news and creating communal disharmony”, the state’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) tweeted today. The arrested man, Tarun Sengupta, describes himself on social media as the BJP’s Asansol district IT in-charge. He is accused of posting fake images and videos on social media to stir communal trouble.

This is the latest such arrest in Bengal since communal violence erupted in North 24 Parganas near Kolkata recently.

Last week, the Kolkata police said they had arrested a person for sharing an image from a Bhojpuri film and passing it off as one from North 24 Parganas.

After the image was circulated, social media users and fact-checking websites like Alt News pointed out that the still was taken from a Bhojpuri movie called “Aurat Khilona Nahi” released in 2014.

Among those who shared the image, targeting the West Bengal government, on social media was Vijeta Malik, an official of the BJP’s Haryana unit.

The police have also registered non-bailable cases against Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokesperson, for sharing a 2002 Gujarat riot photo and claiming it was taken during the communal violence in Basirhat.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared last week: “Action will be taken for spreading fake pictures and videos. The law will take its own course.”

Violence flared in Baduria and Basirhat and spread to other towns in the North 24 Parganas district after a Facebook post by a 17-year-old on Prophet Mohammad angered Muslims. The teen was arrested and has been sent to jail.

The police have put out a series of tweets asking people not to be influenced by fake messages or posts on social media that are designed to create trouble.

(Agencies)

Representational Image.

Bengaluru: Around 150 minor children were detained by the city’s Cantonment Railway Police based on a passenger tip-off that the children were being trafficked.

The children, aged between 8 and 12 years, claimed that they were heading to their respective Madrasas after vacation. Many said they were studying in Madrasas in Shimoga and Tumakuru and were going back after their Ramadan holidays. The same has been confirmed by some of the guardians of the children who have come forward since the detention.

The police and child welfare department officials are currently investigating the case.

Thiruvananthapuram: Popular Malayalam actor Dileep was arrested here on Monday evening in connection with the abduction and sexual assault of an actor in Kochi in February this year.

The actor was apprehended following a probe into the conspiracy angle in the case after the arrest of the prime accused Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni. The office of the Chief Minsiter Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed the actor’s arrest.

Mr. Dileep was taken into custody in the morning and is presently lodged at the Aluva Police Club.

The police had earlier found that Pulsar Suni had contacted film maker Nadirshah, Dileep’s close friend, over phone from the jail on at least three occasions.

Besides, an examination of the SIM cards used by Pulsar Suni had revealed that he frequently called a few numbers, reportedly possessed by people having links with Appunni – an accomplice of actor Dileep. Besides, the cops also found that Appunni had even returned calls to a couple of these numbers on some occasions.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Eighteen opposition parties have decided to field former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their joint candidate for the post of vice president, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said here today.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s name was endorsed by all 18 opposition parties, including the JD(U), which is backing the NDA’s candidate in the presidential poll.

“The 18 opposition parties have unanimously agreed to field Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their joint candidate for the vice presidential election. We spoke to him. He has agreed to be the joint opposition candidate,” the Congress president said after the meeting.

Opposition leaders, including AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and TMC’s Derek O’Brien, called the former governor from the meeting to seek his consent.

The vice presidential election, if required, will take place on August 5. Votes will be counted the same evening.

(Agencies)

Amarnath: As a group of terrorists surrounded a bus with 61 Amarnath pilgrims on Monday night and fired indiscriminately, driver Sheikh Saleem Gafoor Bhaikept kept driving. In inky darkness, he drove on through the hail of bullets and didn’t stop until he spotted an army camp.

“God gave me strength to keep moving, and I just did not stop. The firing went on and on, so I didn’t stop. I kept driving,” said Saleem, who is being held up by many as an example of humanity beyond religion.

Seven pilgrims returning from the Amarnath shrine were killed and 20 wounded in the terror attack in Anantnag, one of the worst in the Kashmir Valley in recent years. Pilgrims on the bus were mainly from Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Had Saleem stopped or panicked, more lives would have been lost, believe those who survived the attack.

“My driver was so brave…he drove on,” said an injured woman at the Anantnag district hospital.

“There was firing from all three sides. Our driver managed to take the bus a few km ahead. He saved us,” said another injured pilgrim.

The attackers were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, the police in Kashmir told NDTV. They had fired at an armoured police car and a security check-post before surrounding the pilgrims’ bus on three sides and firing. The bus was not meant to be on the highway after 5 pm, given security restrictions, but it was delayed by more than two hours, reportedly because of a flat tyre.

“We were driving at 70-80 speed when firing suddenly started. I said let’s keep going until we see the army,” said Saleem’s helper.

Bhagya Mani, who lost her sister-in-law, said: “The driver drove the bus for a kilometer. It was pitch-dark and we could see nothing.”

At 9.30 pm, around an hour after the terrorists struck, Saleem dialed his cousin to share his horror.

“He couldn’t save seven lives but managed to move some 50 people to a safe place. I am proud of him,” said Javed Mirza.

Saleem deserves an award, said Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. “I want to thank the bus driver for saving the lives of people even when there was firing going on. I will nominate his name for a bravery award,” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The police on Sunday once again claimed that the lynching of Junaid had nothing to do with beef. Addressing a press conference after the arrest of the key accused, Government Railway Police SP Kamaldeep said he has confessed to stabbing the 16-year-old on the Delhi-Mathura train during police interrogation, but did not give any statement on beef. “There is no case about beef,” he said.

Naresh Rath, a security guard who worked in Delhi, was arrested on Saturday from Maharashtra’s Dhule after police received a tip-off that he had been hiding at a relative’s house there for the past two weeks. The SP said that police will produce him before a magistrate here on Sunday and will seek three-days in police custody.

Junaid’s murder, on a local train near Ballabgarh on June 22, had triggered nationwide outrage with several coming out on the streets in protest.

The 16-year-old boy had succumbed to his injuries after nobody helped him reach a hospital, according to his brother Haseeb. Haseeb also said that his skull cap was flung, his beard pulled, while the crowd hurled abuses at them.

According to the police, Naresh, who is in his thirties, has confessed that the knife with which Junaid was stabbed was in his hand. However, the murder weapon has still not been recovered.

He told the police that he was from Faridabad and took the local train in which the crime took place on a daily basis. He had boarded the local on that day from Shivaji Bridge station and had an argument with Junaid and his brothers Haseem and Shakil over the seats.

Haseem said that even after the matter was resolved, Naresh and the others followed him to the other compartment and passed racial slurs like ‘anti-national’ and ‘beef-eater’ at them. He added that the men also accused them of carrying beef.

It was Haseem who helped identify Naresh, after which cops prepared a sketch. Police said that they will now put him in a line-up before the eyewitnesses to confirm that he was at the crime scene. The police may also take a ride on the local train to construct a sequence of events.

Earlier, the police had arrested several people, including a 50-year-old Delhi government employee, in connection with the murder.

Junaid’s father Jalaluddin told CNN-News18 that he had just come to know of arrest and the police were bringing the accused back to Delhi. “I thank the media for continuously covering this story and the police for their pursuit of the murderer,” he said, adding that everybody who was behind his son’s killing should be arrested as soon as possible.

Exhorting the government to bring an anti-lynching law, Jalaluddin said: “I urge the government to ensure such incidents don’t occur again. It was my Junaid this time. It could be anybody’s Junaid next.”

(Agencies)